L5 Foundation helps cancer patients by providing them with gas cards and other needs

It was hard enough to deal with the news that her 12-year-old grandson had a tumor on his brain stem.

But the transportation to the treatment Chandler Riley needed in Knoxville would be a financial burden for his family, who lives in Sneedville, said grandmother Debra Riley.

When Chandler needed 31 consecutive proton therapy treatments last year, he and his grandparents — who legally adopted him in 2008 — stayed in Knoxville, at Fellowship House, Riley said.

“But he was miserable,” she said. “He wanted to be home, around family.”

So a gas card from the Knoxville-based nonprofit L5 Foundation was a huge help when Chandler needed to return to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital multiple days a week for labwork, chemotherapy and other treatment. The brain cancer affected his balance, too, so he needed a wheelchair, which means driving a van that “really, really drinks the gas,” Riley said.